Bangers & Lash

Karl Marx always supported the idea of share & share alike, and so i share my musical adventures with you... Poor connection? yeah... gutted. See below.

If there's one thing I like more than getting hammered, it's listening to electro bangers while I do so. This past week has been a healthy one with respect to pre-lashing, and there's about 4 or 5 tunes I've been listening to in order to get happily drunk.

Needless to say, Pjanoo is one of them (forgive me, I'm a student), but that needs no posting here. I saw High Contrast live the other night and he dropped his remix of Pjanoo (which is fucking awesome), so I feel like I'm allowed to like the tune.

Slightly more unknown, although not by much, I'm sure, is Kris Menace's remix of Heartbreaker. It's pretty much the best anthem of the moment. I don't really want to say much more than that, nor do I need to. It's literally incredible. One of those tunes you put on just before you head out, perfect preparation for a cheesey trance night.

Moving on, Designer Drugs are a recent, i'll admit, discovery of mine. And a happy one. Basically, they are like ecstacy and crack in music form. I've included two of their best remixes below. The FLOU tune is full of crashing, dramatic synths and a grinding, angry bassline which accentuates the slightly aggressive vocals. The thumping bass drums and clap-ish (is that a word?) snare set the tune off nicely.
Second from them is their remix of a Mariah Carey song. I have no love for that particular pop princess, but I have a lot of love for what DD have done to her song, turning it into a bit of a rave anthem (i'm partial to that word), which is just harsh enough to offset her vocal sample. It's a bit more of the ecstasy, and less of the crack, but it's still pretty good.

Last, but not least, is the Calling in Sick remix of Bag Raiders' classic 'Fun Punch'. CIS have given it a mix that reeks of Justice influence on electro, but not in a bad way. A few synthed-up guitar solo's, some string chords and the typical electro-funk bassline make this one into another banger. As overused as that word is (particularly by me), there's no other way to describe it. Except maybe anthem, but I've used that one a good few times already.

Whatever, it's amazing.

Metronomy - Heartbreaker (Kris Menace Remix) Buy
FLOU - Les gens pour ce qu'ils sont (DESIGNER DRUGS Remix) (?)
Mariah Carey - I'll Be Lovin U Long Time (DESIGNER DRUGS Remix) (?)
Bag Raiders - Fun Punch (Calling In Sick) Buy

Designer Drugs - Myspace


(?) As per usual, those without 'buy' links are to be considered promotional material. Basically, I can't find anywhere to pay for them, so they must be. That's what I'll tell them in court.

Blog Me Tender

So I though I'd take a break from the electro bangers and listen to some alternative/indie stuff over the weekend. First up, I was skimming through Micky Green's debut album, White T-Shirt. The lead single 'Oh !', is an above-average pop release, which strolls along pleasantly enough - using a deep synth and some powerful piano stabs to give it a bouncy, slightly dark, rhythm. The only other stand-out song, for me at least, is the album's namesake 'White T-Shirt'. The track starts with just some simple, beautifully gentle, backing vocals and a slow soul click supporting Green's floaty, melodius singing. It softly rises to a climax, with a smooth bass thump and some relaxed drumming coming in over time to lend some support, before it finishes with about 5 seconds of funky guitar and heavily reverbed drums. Overall, it's pleasant, mellow and captivating in it's simplicity. I can't really say much for the lyrics, though.

I discovered delphic. about three days ago, when I was searching for The Streets' hidden tracks on myspace. The hidden track itself, Never Give In, was a bit of a non-event. Surprisingly though, delphic. himself was a bit of revelation. All the songs on his page were good, but I highly recommend the powerful electro/rock anthem 'Submission'. Light, rhythmic, almost dancey synths and strings are married to some heavy guitar chords and banging drums. The result is nothing short of epic. The man's vocals also display impressive range and pitch (probably computer aided, but who cares?), and they are just powerful and anthemic enough to match the tempo and atmosphere of the song. Pretty bloody good.

Last but not least, London indie rockers' Captain caught my attention. The band have yet to make a real splash on the commercial market, but they seem to be heading in the right direction. On 'Keep An Open Mind', Rik Flynn's almost aggressive vocals are accompanied by some powerful drumming, heavily manipulated guitar and energetic, if plodding, piano chords. The track rebounds vibrantly between the loud, and particularly catchy (if pretty meaningless), chorus into mellow piano riffs and soaring strings, giving it a nice balance between light and dark. It's a pretty handy attempt at some good old indie-pop, don't let that desctiprion put you off, and probably the band's most commercially viable release. (But it's still ok to blog about them, because they're not mainstream yet.)

Oh yeah, and here's a banger from The Touch. I didn't take that much of a break, obviously.

The Touch - Le Night Dominator Buy
Captain - Keep An Open Mind Buy
Micky Green - White T-Shirt Buy
delphic. - Submission Watch*



*As far as I can ascertain, there's nowhere you can buy delphic.'s material. However, if you're interested in seeing him, he's performing at the Manchester 'Night & Day Cafe' on the 29th November. The amazing Islands are performing at the same place, on Wednesday 24th September - I'd highly recommend them as well.

Space, Time & Matter

The scientists of earth are truly a mad race. Refusing to bow to media uproar or public indifference, they've gone ahead and created a Doomsday Machine. Even Dan Brown couldn't change their minds, despite pointing out that the Large Hadron Collider will create 'dangerous antimatter' (possibly to be used as a weapon against the Vatican). The fools!

I am, of course, talking about the recent activation of a large particle accelerator, hidden under the Swiss mountains in an Evil Death Bunker (probably). It's been all over the news, just after the stories on Big Brother and Our Boys In Iraq.

Interestingly, 02 have decided to use this example of science gone mad to boost their new venture - South East London's Matter club night. (They haven't really, but I have employed my prodigious skill with the English language to link particle's and matter together. Hence creating a link between these two completely unrelated topics.) The club will feature both a 'Live' night (usually Fridays), and a 'Club' night (Saturdays). So far, the upcoming lineups look more than impressive. Justice present their 'A Cross The Universe' venture on the 25th of October, and are bringing Electro heavyweight DJ Mehdi along for the party. It should be a good one. Prior to that, hardcore electro favourite OCELOT performs alongside Mylo on the 26th September. They've also managed to bring together Deadmau5, Pnau and Chris Lake on the 2nd of October (a night that would probably turn me into a raving nutter, fueled only by his passion for more electro). My personal favourites - the Mystery Jets - are also performing there in October. Along with various others, who i can't be bothered to list - although Riton deserves a special mention. For more info, see This Is Not London (it actually is London, but whatever).

Anyway, don't ask me why I'm promoting the 02. I guess I just love encouraging corporate bodies to horribly commercialise my favourite artists. Ciao.


We Are Scientists - Chick Lit (Danger TV Remix) Buy
Mystery Jets - The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-Dub) Buy
Ocelot - Our Time (Tom Neville Remix) Buy
DJ Mehdi - Signatune (Thomas Bangalter Edit) Buy
Mark Ronson feat Lily Allen - Oh My God (Chris Lake Edit) Buy

Justice - Myspace